CIOs, perhaps more than any other title, are all over the map in who they report to. Take control of what you need to get done by making key three shifts in your mindset and relationship.

Building takes time. It also takes buy-in. And buy-in requires knowing the crucial, not just the superficial.

Hard markets and tight budgets don’t need to delay the spending you need now. Buy-in isn’t about the budget. It’s about the right decision. And that’s something you can lead.

It’s not enough to tell CEOs what to think. They best manage their expectations of IT through processing three critical areas.

Begin with the end in mind is standard advice. And is still a missed dynamic in most planning. It’s the big picture, not the individual project, that gets forgotten. Working backwards is the critical way forward.

We rely too often on our own credibility or research or vendor propaganda to sell our proposals. We rely too little on the best way we know that what we know is right.